The present invention relates to the production of cobalt carbonate slurries and to slurries so prepared. Slurries of cobalt carbonate are useful where an aqueous mixture of cobalt (II) is desired. Because cobalt carbonate is not water-soluble, a uniform and stable slurry is important to its application to liquid phase reactions and applications.
Past methods of producing cobalt slurries have involved suspending cobalt carbonate powder in water. The cobalt carbonate is produced by conventional chemical conversion after which the product is dried and ground into a powder. This grinding is necessary because the consistency of the dried cobalt carbonate product does not allow efficient and stable resuspension of the product. The powder is then shipped in bags and resuspended at the destination. Even with the powdering, the resuspension results are not optimal. Slurries prepared from the dried powder are difficult to resuspend and, therefore, it is difficult to prepare stable slurries. Often the cobalt carbonate settles as a hard mass which is difficult, if not impossible, to resuspend.
The drying, grinding and bagging processes are expensive and the cobalt carbonate powder presents a health hazard to those exposed to it.